Storyboard:

Title:

1988 - The catastrophe of Gladbeck

Rights-Managed,
Editorial

Location and time:

Germany, Gladbeck, 16-08-1988

Description:

A bank robbery in Gladbeck on 16 August. The gangsters, Degowski, Rösner and a girlfriend, take two women hostage. The men are known to be extremely violent and brutal. Following behind, the police are unable to find a strategy for ending the chase without endangering the two women”s lives. When the fugitives stop in Cologne city centre on 18 August, journalists come right up to their vehicle. Hoping for a scoop, they do interviews with the gun-wielding criminals - anything for a good story. One reporter even gets into the car to convey the thrill of this cops-and-robbers exclusive. On the motorway the police finally close in as the men speed south towards Frankfurt. In the ensuing shoot-out, the terrified hostage, 18-year-old Silke Bischof, is killed. While police tactics are heavily criticised, the behaviour of journalists is also called into question. Does the craving for sensation justify giving violent criminals a media platform?

Sound Bite and conversation:

Falk, Ines

(hostage in the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "Silke started to scream more and more hysterically filled with fear and I don’t know how, but somehow she felt or suspected that something bad would happen, anyway she shouted very loudly. Jump out Ines, jump. Then she screamed shrilly I’ve never heard anyone shout like that. Then I mustered all my courage, opened the door and jumped out of the car into the ditch."

Falk, Ines

(hostage in the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "Degowski whispered in my ear that he and his friend were sorry that they had taken us. We were too young so they were thinking of letting us go during the night somewhere after crossing the border. Then we drank a beer and were happy and hoped that nothing would come up and we would finally be free."

Arndt, Holger

(Press photographer in the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "The situation in Cologne scared me because the journalists became collaborators. They committed crimes, brought coffee to the delinquents, showed pictures to them and stalked the police to exchange the hostages for policemen. This meant they were confederates..."

Prestin, Holger

(Lawyer of Rösner) , speaking German: - "The physical proximity of the journalists was a kind of life insurance. He knew that journalists and their crew were moving so close to them that the police could not intervene."

Rösner, Hans-Jürgen

(bank robber in 1988, Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "They should not have done this these pigs, these god damn pigs ……. These bastards ..."

Granitzka, Winrich

(Police of Cologne at the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "The whole thing was a miserable story since the policemen had decided by themselves, without asking the central office. But I think that in such an operation there are always people who do not act according to the rules.
"

Granitzka, Winrich

(Police of Cologne at the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "We did not have enough men and they weren’t experienced, so we could not intervene safely."

Rösner, Hans-Jürgen

(bank robber in 1988, Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "My buddy is very dangerous....(puts a gun into his mouth) this will be the end..... I already sat 13 years in prison and boarding schools... I don’t give a shit about my life...."

Schöning, Wolfgang

(Director of the bank and mediator) , speaking German: - "As a matter of fact we asked the police to let them go freely. They, of course, did not guarantee it and started to chase them immediately. That is why they didn’t let the hostages go although they had promised me."

Falk, Ines

(hostage in the catastrophe of Gladbeck) , speaking German: - "Rösner had a dominant and bossy personality. Degowski was more nervous and followed Rösner’s orders."